A new batch of emails released today by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee show former IRS official Lois Lerner was concerned about Congress being able subpoena her online communications.

In an April 9, 2013 email exchange with an IRS technology employee named
Maria Hooke, Lerner asked if the company's interoffice messaging system
was searchable like emails because employees in her division wanted to
know if they needed to be as careful with the conversations over the system as they are with their email conversations.

The inquiry came less than two weeks after the Oversight committee says the Inspector General informed the IRS that an audit of the federal agency produced evidence that Lerner's division was targeting conservatives, raising suspicions about the nature of Lerner's question.

A new batch of emails from former director of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) exempt organizations office Lois Lerner show that she was concerned about Congress reading her online communications

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan takes IRS commissioner John Koskinen to the woodshed during a hearing today over Lois Lerner's emails

The email chain was discovered among approximately 15,000 emails Republican Rep. Jim Jordan
says the IRS 'dumped' on the Oversight committee near the close of
business on the eve of the Fourth of July holiday last week.

'I had a question today about OCS,' Lerner said in the first email, referring to the company's Microsoft Office Communications Server.

'I was cautioning folks about email and how we have had several occasions where Congress has asked for emails and there has been an electronic search for responsive emails--so we need to be cautious about what we say in emails,' she continued.

'Someone asked if OCS conversations were also searchable--I don't know, but told them I would get back to them.

'Do you know?' she asked.

In a response email sent later that afternoon Hooke told Lerner instant messages are not 'set to automatically save,' but the 'functionality exists in the software.'

Hooke explained that chats would only be searchable if one of the individuals involved saved the conversation as an email or a file.

'My general recommendation is to treat the conversation as if it could/is being save somewhere, as it is possible for either party of the conversation to retain the information and have it turn up as part of the electronic search,' she said.

'Make sense?'

Lerner responded six minutes with a single word: 'Perfect.'

Also copied on the emails was IRS Director for Exempt Organizations Exam Unit Manager Nanette Downing, an auditor.

Koskinen said this was the first time he'd heard about Lerner's email to the technology department

At an Oversight Government Operations subcommittee hearing today that IRS Commissioner John Koskinen was testifying at on another topic, Jordan confronted him about Lerner's email exchange.

Jordan said that on June 3, 2011, Ways and Mean Chairman David Camp sent a letter to the IRS expressing concern that the IRS is targeting conservative groups.

Ten days later, Jordan said, the computers of several IRS officials, including Lerner, crashed, and many of their emails were lost.

Two years later on March 28, 2013, the Inspector General told the IRS 'that you've been caught with your hands in the cookie jar,' Jordan continued.

And just 12 days after that, the email exchange between Lerner and Hooke took place, he said.

Jordan, the second highest ranking Republican on the Oversight committee, read Lerner's emails aloud and testily asked Koskinen if he knew about them before today.

'No, and I don't see anything in here where Lois Lerner says, "Well, I got rid of my earlier emails, and now I gotta check on them," ' the IRS official, who was not in charge of the agency when the targeting happened, fired back.

The subcommittee hearing moved back on track after Jordan ran down his allotted time to question Koskinen, but other Republican Representatives joined in on the discussion via twitter.

'Why was Lois Lerner cautioning #IRS officials to "be cautious about what we say in emails"if she had nothing to hide?' North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows said.

'Ridiculous,' said Kansas Rep. Lynn Jenkins said in a comment in front of a link to a news story about Lerner's latest emails.